NHL: Flyers drop heartbreaker to Senators

Philadelphia Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov reacts after the go-ahead goal scored by Ottawa Senators' Colin Greening during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, April 11, 2013, in Philadelphia. The Senators won 3-1. (AP Photo/Tom Mihalek)

PHILADELPHIA — In taking another nimble step toward embarrassing elimination Thursday night, the Flyers performed another human dog trick in a building lacking the usual number of hometown fans.

After pulling out all the stops — well, except any acts of offense — in an effort to stay alive in the playoff chase, the Flyers managed to give up a clean breakaway while killing a penalty, something new for the highlights film and the solution to a 3-1 loss to Ottawa Senators.

Forgetting everything they were taught in pee-wee about dropping penalty killers back in protection mode, the Flyers allowed Senators center Colin Greening to take a pass, then take his time to pick out a part of the net that undefended Ilya Bryzgalov couldn’t cover. That unavoidable goal with 5:36 left to play turned out to be a game-winner ... not to mention something completely different.

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“Yeah, it has happened,” beleaguered coach Peter Laviolette said. “There was a line change and a missed coverage. They had been bringing five guys back all night on their power play and breakouts, and that last time they brought four back and the one stretched. From the change, we missed them.”

In non-coachspeak, that’s called a huge, if not altogether rare mistake.

Another big boo-boo was Claude Giroux’s double-minor penalty with 6:07 left in regulation, the Flyers’ captain tagging Ottawa’s Mika Zibanejad in his noggin with a careless and errant stickblade.

Hey ... it happens.

“I tried to lift his stick and he moved his stick and it hit him in the face,” Giroux testified. “Stuff like that, it’s going to happen. Obviously it’s not good timing, but stuff like that’s going to happen.”

Not only would that penalty lead to the end for the Flyers, but it negated a goal by Giroux in the first period that had tied the game 1-1. That deflection goal in a shorthanded situation was about the only time Ottawa goalie Robin Lehner seemed to perspire.

So the Flyers lost their third straight game, but don’t sweat it. They remained seven points out of a playoff spot in the East, um, with eight games to go.

All well and good ... night to the season.

But the big story after this game of inaction was that Bryzgalov stayed awake all through it. He had to, considering the Senators were outshooting the Flyers by an almost 2-1 margin after two periods.

He also knew he’d have to be on his toes after the game to answer questions for the first time about the spate of comical stories Wednesday that he’d fallen asleep in a team meeting Monday.

Didn’t everyone find that funny?

“You know guys, to be honest, I don’t know where you get this information,” Bryzgalov said. “Be honest, did you read yourself what you’re writing? That’s embarrassing, OK? You’ve got to, I don’t know, prove your sources. That never happened. You became not professional journalists. It’s embarrassing. Seriously. You’ve got to do your job better. I’m only pointing at guys who was like, involved in this.”

Oddly, a bunch of hands didn’t go up at that moment in the locker room.

Not a lot of accountability going on there these days.

You’d think Bryzgalov would have wanted to say a few words since, just 3:20 into the game, Ottawa’s Zack Smith went gliding right down the Flyers’ slot untouched, and in one deft deke move tucked the puck behind the tired goalie for a 1-0 Senators lead.

Right after that, Ottawa’s Kyle Turris went in on a partial breakaway, but was turned away by Bryzgalov, who made 31 saves to save himself any embarrassment on a night that everyone else in the locker room during and after the game might have experienced.

Or not.

Eventually, the goalie’s trial ended and he was on the bench to watch all-time Senator Daniel Alfredsson deposit an empty-net goal that sent the fans home happier than ever.

•••

The Flyers took an early step on their long-term rebuilding project Thursday, signing free agent prospect Petr Straka to an three-year, entry-level contract that will take effect at the start of next season.

Straka, 20, was paramount in leading his Baie-Comeau Drakkar team deep into the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoffs. During the regular season he scored 41 goals and registered 41 assists in 55 games. He has eight goals and 10 assists thus far in eight playoff games.

Straka had been a second-round pick of Columbus in the 2010 NHL draft. He never signed with the Blue Jackets.

“The last couple of years he was a little bit inconsistent for whatever reason,” said Flyers hockey operations director Chris Pryor. “But this year his numbers will tell you he’s been a good player. It looks like he’s figured it out. He’s had a good year.”

Pryor said he had to have projections for a player like Straka, but said he can see him having “a chance to a second- or third-line guy down the road.